Procrastination always wins.

This week destroyed me. Destroyed me. Being a senior, I had Part II due on Thursday, and I had to reconstruct my Rhetorical Analysis Paper. That's a ton of writing, 27 pages if you want the exact number. How did I do it? I did it at the last  moments possible.

Sometimes I wish society still wrote with ink-tipped feathers on scrolls. Computers are the biggest distraction ever. Instead of hurting your brain cells by composing true literary art, you could numb/kill them by logging on to facebook and talk about the latest drama that won't matter 1 week from now. Or you could check scores of the game, look at funny pictures, and tweet about how you are procrastinating.

Before I would attempt to write while making 2 sandwiches, maybe some chips and salsa, and doing anything but writing. But to combat with my procrastination methods, I had to think of a solution. This week I used our publicly funded libraries to help me out. All I brought was my iPod of jams, and my assignment sheets.

When I got there I was amazed at what other teenagers did. They met in "study groups" and blabbered on about stuff they weren't studying about. Others were facebook stalking in front of everybody (Everybody does it, but these people don't care who sees). Here I was, with the same distractions I face at home without food. And I was hungry.

But somehow, someway I trained myself to imagine this computer only had Word 2010 and NOTHING else.  I jammed to many a tune and typed away. Sure it was the last hours possible to complete all this writing I was assigned, but by putting myself in an imaginary world without distractions I did it. Am I crazy because I have to imagine a land without distractions? Maybe a little, but it works.

Lazy Rivers

Lazy Rivers are heavenly. They are my zen. I know I sound weird but floating around on a tube in circles, doing absolutely nothing, while getting a killer tan is freaking relaxing.

Last spring break, I was feeling a little stressed going in and the lazy river solved that. While I was fried under the sun, I became enlightened while contemplating deep thoughts (the title of this blog!). When I came back, everything computed in my mind and I did what I had to. And I thank the lazy river for that.

Look at that, tell me you don't want to chill right now.

 Over my MEA break I visited the University of Missouri (Mizzou) and was elated when I heard they had a lazy river in their rec center. I had to see this for myself. The rec center is voted one of the best in the nation but the lazy river is subpar. It has a circumference of about 100 feet and looks like a figure 8. 

However, the fact that a lazy river is in close proximity to where I might live is quite cool. It's probably a little sad when I'm using lazy rivers to judge where I want to go to college, but hey if I could major in chill, I would. 

Students.

The film 2 million minutes makes the argument that there is a student "epidemic" that is sweeping across the United States. Students are slacking off and as a result risking their entire futures. In contrast it tries to show how countries such as India and China are trying their hardest to be the best: their students study much more than Americans and academics is their #1 priority. This is supposed to make the American audience fearful of their future and dive into their competitive drive to be number 1. 

I felt like the film picked the completely wrong American students to prove their argument. Trying to make slacker out of a guy who is president of his class, writing for the school newspaper, and going to Purdue on a full ride scholarship? What were they thinking? And the other girl they picked with the sparkling 3.94 GPA was no slacker either. They showed them having social lives, but never went into their study methods.

Meanwhile, the students they picked from China and India were shown to be academic superstars. One kid basically said he was a "genius". However in the end, the American students went to the colleges of their choice while the Indian and Chinese students ended up getting rejected and forced to take other options. The film's argument just didn't work for me.

I do think students in America don't have the drive that other students from different countries have. But like Mike Rose's article "I Don't Want to be Average", this might be due to the educational system itself. The same thing is taught and reiterated year after year. The same methods are also used to learn. 1. Do homework 2. Come to class 3. Receive grade. This doesn't promote learning, its just basic bribery. There needs to be more fresh ideas installed into the educational system or we're going to continue feeling like robots. 

Planking

I'm not going to lie. I was going to write about my personal issues and complain but nobody wants to read that. All it sounds like is wah, wah, wah. So I'll write about a pointless topic instead.

Planking. It's stupid. How bored is our society if we must take a picture of ourselves laying stiff in unusual areas? The answer: Society is bored. And when society is bored, society does stupid things.


This girl is so bored she has her face in a toilet. Or maybe she's that drunk. In that case, her face will eventually be in that toilet anyway so it doesn't matter.

The history of planking is actually racist. When the Europeans would capture Africans and bring them to the new world, they were forced to lay in a stiff position for the entire journey. That was a few a weeks, if not months. I bet planking doesn't seem all that innocent anymore.                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Planking is also dangerous. A drunk man tried planking on his 7th floor of his building, and fell to his death. That's not an honorable way to die in my opinion, not that dying honorable really matters in this case.

Planking is just stupid and that's my two cents. Go ride a bike, or chase butterflies.

Rhetorical Analysis of Obama's Speech

In President Obama's annual back-to-school speech, his audience is represented by the students of America. However because the topic is being a successful student and impacting the country, his audience is specifically high school students. He is speaking at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in front of a student body and is introduced by a student president. To connect with his audience he uses diction that is not politically complicated as his normal speeches might be for normal students. He also makes pop culture references to things such as facebook to further connect with his audience.

The general appearance of Obama is typical of a U.S. President. He is wearing a suit and tie to appear and credit him as being professional at what he is doing. His posture also reiterated his credentials because he was standing upright with hand gestures to emphasize a point. He gave the audience an impression that he knew what he was talking about and he was very confident about it.

Obama's argument of the speech is that the students of America need to know that they are the future, and the country relies on them. "You're not just kids. You're this country's future," he said. When he said this he kept it short and understandable to the audience. He connects by using pathos, emotion appeal when he mentions that teachers understand they are the future. He states that teachers are doing their jobs not for self benefit, but for the benefit of the country, so students should be compelled to do the same.

Obama also uses statistic evidence to provide logos in his speech, while contributing to his argument. He mentions that 60% of jobs will require more than a high school degree, and that the United States needs to be number 1 in college graduates.

In addition to pathos, and logos; Obama used ethos to round his argument and make it complete. The fact he is the President of the United States already gives him ethos, but he mentioned how he was a student and didn't earn the best grades he could have. This connected to students who are in the same boat, and might give them hope that if they step it up they can impact their country to the point of becoming president.

To make his argument more presentable, Obama uses the right mix of tone, cadence, and intonation. His tone is similar to a parents, he does not want to be disappointed and is giving advice on how to accomplish the goals he wants from the students. When he is speaking he uses the right amount of cadence and intonation to not sound monotone and emphasize crucial points.

Overall, Obama's speech is very well rounded and successful. He connects to the audience and gets his argument across in a way they can understand.

To make his argument come across clearly, Obama uses cadence and intonation